'Stay On Target!' Reshoots Ordered For 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

There has been a great disturbance in the Force.

And this time, it’s not down to the Skywalker family. Production is well underway on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which will tell the tale of how the Rebellion stole the Death Star plans and kick-started the events of A New Hope (1977).

Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen, we glimpsed all of these talented actors (except Mikkelsen) in that intriguing trailer (and this handy trailer breakdown). Here it is again to refresh your memory:

However, if the report from the New York Post is to be believed, all is not as well as we (or Disney) would like to believe.

According to the Post's exclusive source, the big bosses within the House of Mouse are “not happy with the movie,” meaning that Rogue One “will have to go back into four weeks of expensive reshoots in July.”

Apparently, the first cut that director Gareth Edwards presented hasn’t tested well, which isn’t great to hear after the all-around success of The Force Awakens last year.

The source from Disney confirms this:

"There’s an incredibly high bar for this movie and we have a responsibility to the franchise and to the fans to deliver the best possible movie we can.”

Edwards had previously directed Monsters and Godzilla, both of which sparked the attention of many Hollywood execs.

Should we have a bad feeling about this?

While the news itself is, well, not great and doesn’t generate positivity for a film that could potentially surpass Civil War at the box office, it isn’t quite the time to panic and grab the pitchforks. Reshoots are not necessarily the dreaded thing that we have come to see them as.

This news might simply suggest that the overall edit is just not as good as it could be, with no mention of the footage stooping to Batman & Robin levels of bad. And those are two very different levels.

Indeed, the way a film is cut is crucial. Take Daredevil or Kingdom of Heaven and their subsequent director's cuts, which are widely agreed to improve upon the theatrical release because they tell the stories in clearer or more substantial ways. Edwards may simply be reshooting scenes so that the dialogue and sequences are slicker.

Furthermore, film reshoots are surprisingly very common, particularly in regards to special effects, where the position of the cast or the angles aren’t quite meshing with how the filmmakers envisage the end product. The source even admits as much:

“The filmmaking team and the studio always anticipated additional shooting and second unit work to make the film the absolute best it can be, and the actors were aware there would be additional shooting.”

It may simply be the case that Rogue One is actually pretty good, and production is just going the extra mile to ensure its quality.

We still might get a fabulous movie out of this. Don’t believe me? Jaws, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, The Avengers and many other classic movies all had reshoots, and look how they turned out. The path of filmmaking is never straight or predictable.

Plus, there is plenty of time for changes to be made to Rogue One. The film is not out until December after all, which is another six months; it might not be the largest window of hard work for creating movie magic, but it is by no means the smallest window.

Legend has it that famed director Peter Jackson was still editing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King mere hours before its premiere, and it went on to win 11 Oscars.

A half-made movie is not an indicator of how the finished product will look.

Additionally, the reputed source could have overblown the situation, when the reality is far more benign. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t disregard what the report says, but that a pinch of salt must always be taken; nonstories are often reported to tarnish a reputation so that others will benefit from it.

How should we react? I think it best to borrow again from the Star Wars movies and show restraint. In the wise words of Yoda, we "must learn control."

[Source: New York Post]